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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Environmental Geosciences (DEG)

Abstract

Environmental Geosciences, V. 20, No. 1 (March 2013), P. 1–16.

Copyright copy2013. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists/Division of Environmental Geosciences. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1306/eg.09131212006

Environmental regulation and compliance of Marcellus Shale gas drilling

Timothy J. Considine,1 Robert W. Watson,2 Nicholas B. Considine,3 John P. Martin4

1Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy, Department of Economics and Finance, School of Energy Resources, 323E College of Business, Department 3985, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming; [email protected]
2Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania; [email protected]
3University of Wyoming, Wyoming; [email protected]
4JPMartin Energy Strategy LLC, Saratoga Springs, New York; [email protected]

AUTHORS

Timothy J. Considine is the School of Energy Resources professor of energy economics at the University of Wyoming and the Director of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy. His prior positions include those at Pennsylvania State University, Bank of America, and U.S. Congressional Budget Office. He has a Ph.D. from Cornell University, an M.S. degree from Purdue University, and a B.A. degree with honors from Loyola University of Chicago.

Robert W. Watson is an associate professor emeritus of petroleum and natural gas engineering and environmental system engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. He has nearly 50 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, which that includes 13 years of employment as an engineer. His university research and consulting practice has included minimizing the environmental impact of oil-gas well drilling, completion, and production. He currently serves as chairman of the Technical Advisory Board to the Bureau of Oil and Gas Management of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protections.

Nicholas Considine received his B.A. degree in political science from the Pennsylvania State University and has since conducted research for multiple studies on shale energy development in the United States. He is currently pursuing his M.B.A. degree in energy management at the University of Wyoming. Considine has also worked as a data analyst at the University of Wyoming and Natural Resource Economics, Inc.

Martin is the founder of JPMartin Energy Strategy LLC, which provides strategic planning, resource evaluation, project management, and government/public relations services to the energy industry, academic institutions, and governments. Before forming the consultancy, Martin spent 17 years working on energy research and policy issues at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and developed a series of projects targeting oil and gas resources, renewable energy development, and environmental mitigation. He holds a Ph.D. in urban and environmental studies, an M.S. degree in economics, and a B.S. degree in geology, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also holds an M.B.A. degree from Miami University and completed graduate work in mineral economics at West Virginia University.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Scott Anderson of the Environmental Defense Fund; Andrew Hunter of Cornell University; Robert Jacobi of the State University of New York at Buffalo; Brigham McCown of United Transportation Advisors, LLC; and George Rusk of Ecology and Environment, Inc., for their comments on a previous version of this paper. We also thank four anonymous referees for their insightful comments. These acknowledgments are made with the usual disclaimer that the authors accept full responsibility for any remaining errors and omissions.

ABSTRACT

Quantifying the success or failure of states in effectively and safely managing natural gas development is important for regulators, elected officials, and citizens to engage in productive dialog around natural gas development and the process of hydraulic fracturing. Accordingly, this study provides a detailed analysis of notices of violations from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from January 2008 to August 2011, categorizing each violation for 3533 wells drilled. Of the 2988 violations, 1844, or 62%, were for administrative or preventative reasons. The remaining 38%, or 1144 notices of violations, were for environmental violations, which were associated with 845 unique environmental events. These events were classified into major and nonmajor categories based on the level and severity of the Previous HitpollutionTop. Blowouts, uncontrolled venting, and gas migration are considered as severe and, hence, are classified as major. The top quartile of water contamination and land spills is 400 gal and provides the threshold in this study for major events in these two categories. Of these major events, less than 1% or 25 involved these major impacts. In all but six of these cases, the resulting environmental impacts have been completely mitigated. The 820 nonmajor environmental events concern site restoration, water contamination, land spills, and cement and casing events, which do not involve what is classified as having major environmental impact. The number of polluting environmental events per well drilled declined by 60% between 2008 and August 2011, from 52.9% of all wells drilled in 2008 to 20.8% to August 2011. The regulatory data evaluated in this study may serve as an appropriate litmus test for neighboring states as they move forward with regulating shale energy development. In particular, we find that each of the underlying causes associated with these specific events could have been either entirely avoided or mitigated under the proposed regulatory framework of the New York State.

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